Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn’t hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I’m not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I’ve let my link up subscription lapse so you can’t get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016… Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. We had 305 submissions last week! Ohmigosh! Do you wonder if we look at them all....and the … [Read more...]
Staying organized with kids
Staying organized is one thing I work really hard at. For me, I find that it keeps the stress levels down, frees up more time to spend with my family, and just plain works! With four kids organization is mandatory (if you ask me). Our mud room is one room that I use as a family organization room. I'm going to share a few of my tips and tricks to staying organized with kids! First up....the embarrassing BEFORE photos. Now here is what I did. First thing I did was make the mess even bigger! I took EVERYTHING off the shelf and out of the cubbies and tossed them on the floor. I made three piles- Save, Store, Sell. Once you have your piles then you can start figuring out what you need to do to organize. I realized that some extra baskets and buckets would help me a bunch. I taped off an area above the hooks on the wall and painted with some chalkboard paint. Right now it just has one of my favorite quotes on it but in the future I plan to use it to keep the kids reminder notes … [Read more...]
Scratch Drawing
Scratch drawing (or rainbow drawing as Lindsi calls it) was one of my favorite things to do as a child. It was fun seeing all the unique pictures I could make. It was also one of Lindsi's favorite things to do. You see, Lindsi was scheduling posts for next week when she happened to look at what I had scheduled for this week. She called me up and said, "I think we have the same posts scheduled! What is 'scratch drawing?'" When I told her she started laughing, "that's the same as my 'rainbow drawing' I have scheduled for next week!" Both Lindsi and I learned scratch drawing using just crayons (on the left above) but I recently saw some using crayons and paint (on the right above) and decided to give that a try with my girls too. To do scratch drawing with your kids, you'll need: White paper Crayons Dark paint or a black crayon Toothpicks, paper clips, a coin, or some other object for scratching Have your kids color patches of color on the paper with the … [Read more...]
S’mores Croissants
My girls LOVE to eat s'mores but don't always like the mess of the sticky marshmallows. Plus, we live in Minnesota and campfires are not an option in the winter. Here's our version of s'mores that's a little less messy and super easy to make when campfires are not available. You'll need: Chocolate Chips Mini Marshmallows A Tube of Croissants/Crescent Rolls Optional stuff such as peanut butter, caramel, bananas, raspberries, strawberries... Step 1) Separate the croissants and lay them out flat on a baking sheet. Step 2) Put chocolate chips and mini marshmallows on the fat side of the croissant. Add any optional ingredients. Try not to overfill it. For these photos we used chocolate/peanut butter chips and mini marshmallows only. I have made these in the past with the optional ingredients and they are super yummy (especially the ones with the caramel and peanut butter!). Step 3) Roll up the croissants making sure that your ingredients do not fall out. If … [Read more...]
Plates In The Dryer–A MN Blogging Event
Toys In The Dryer and Color Me Mine Eagan will host the first ever Minnesota blogging event--for kids! We happily invite our Toys In The Dryer readers, fellow bloggers, and their kids to: Plates In The Dryer Monday, April 30, 2011, 4-6 pm Color Me Mine in Eagan (Tickets available via Eventbrite starting March 1, 2012) We all know that blogging and other social media takes time away from family. Toys In The Dryer, however, would like to encourage you to spend more time with them. Come socialize with people in your social media circle AND spend time painting pottery with your kids! Donate to charity while you're at--It's a win-win for everyone! This event isn't just for bloggers/blog readers, it's for the whole family so husbands, wives, and significant others are welcome and encouraged! Kids of all ages are welcome too! Have an infant? Make a plate with his/her handprint or footprint! Have a teen? See the beautiful things he/she can make! One (per child) … [Read more...]
Fun Stuff Fridays (#11)
Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn’t hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I’m not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I’ve let my link up subscription lapse so you can’t get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016… Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. We had over 300 submissions last week! WAY TO GO! You might wonder if we look at them … [Read more...]
